Java 17 preview language level use

[Tagir Valeev]

Hello!

I guess there was already a discussion about whether it's a good idea to
have preview features in Java versions that major vendors consider as LTS.
I cannot find it right now, but I have some numbers, which might be
interesting to experts.

According to the stats that JetBrains gathers from the users (who agreed to
send anonymous statistics), now at the end of 2023, about 1.1–1.2% of Java
users still use Java 17-preview language level in at least one module of
their projects. Among users who are at Java 17, the percentage is even
higher, about 3.0–3.5%. This is more than 10x higher, compared to use of
preview level of Java 18, 19, 20, or 21.

As we know, it's a little bit too late to use it to evaluate and submit
feedback, which is a primary purpose of the preview version. And we get
quite angry feedback from the users because we stopped supporting Java
17-preview in our IDEs. So people really use preview features of LTS Java
versions in production.

Probably, skipping preview features in LTS versions would be better. At
least, something to think about.

With best regards,
Tagir Valeev.
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